Monthly Archives: November 2008

La Damnation de Faust: Berlioz and Video Projection

Written by Neil Kurtzman | 23rd November 2008

Tweet The Met’s new production of Berlioz’s I don’t know what to call it but it’s a masterpiece La Damnation de Faust was broadcast in HD on Saturday Nov 22, 2008. Robert Lepage directed the show making extensive use of computerized video images. Though Berlioz intended the piece to be a concert work, it has…

Doctor Atomic in HD

Written by Neil Kurtzman | 9th November 2008

Tweet Doctor Atomic John Adams’ 2005 opera was broadcast today (Nov 8, 2008) in HD. The opera depicts the first atomic explosion in Los Alamos NM in 1945. The libretto by Peter Sellars is a pastiche (crazy quilt might be more accurate) of material written by the opera’s protagonists, Baudelaire, Muriel Rukeyser, John Donne, excerpts…

Medicine and Inconvenient Truths

Written by Neil Kurtzman | 5th November 2008

Tweet Victor Fuchs, a long time deep thinker (no sarcasm intended) about medical economics has a perspective piece in the October 23 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine that presents three “inconvenient truths” about health care. His analysis is likely to represent that which will be applied to medical care over the next…

Medical Student Burnout and the Challenge to Patient Care

Written by Neil Kurtzman | 3rd November 2008

Tweet The above is the title of an article in the New York Times. It depicts the emotional trauma endured by its author during her four years in medical school. While her suffering is depicted at length the reason for it is not. It reads as if she were unprepared for the Spanish Inquisition which…

About Neil Kurtzman

Neil A Kurtzman MD is the Grover E Murray Professor Emeritus and University Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Department of Internal Medicine at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock. He has combined careers in clinical medicine, education, basic research, and administration for more than 30 years.